William Shatner Honored by NASA for Good Reason

Is this a nonprofit story? Probably not, but it’s worth a few seconds of commentary. William Shatner, the hero to all sci-fi aficionados of the 1960s for his role as Captain Kirk on Star Trek, received NASA’s Distinguished Public Service medal last weekend, the highest honor NASA can bestow on a civilian.

Shatner is a great choice. He’s been an unabashed space enthusiast for 50 years and has lent his voice to NASA videos. It’s hard to imagine that he didn’t know that Star Trek was a kind of hysterical show, with him as a something of a space cowboy. His sense of humor, always abundant, especially in his extremely funny Priceline commercials, suggests he knew what Star Trek was—and it wasn’t Kubrick’s 2001 and he wasn’t quite Sigourney Weaver in Alien.

But just imagine how many of today’s scientists were inspired as youngsters watching Kirk, Spock, Sulu, and Scotty cavort through space. Shatner might have done as much for contemporary scientists—he was always promoting science and math education—as any educational program that might have been launched with a similar purpose back then.

But just last week, Shatner received another award. Bernard McGuirk, the executive producer of Imus in the Morning, was on The O’Reilly Factor and invited to make his choice for “pinhead of the week.” McGuirk named Shatner “pinhead” because Shatner had suggested publicly that Hillary Clinton might be a good president if elected.

Shatner was up for the honor. He tweeted a characteristic response;

@oreillyfactor Heard I won the pinhead of the week award. Is there a dinner you want me to attend? Do I get a plaque? I can send an address.

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

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